THE TUMESCENT ADOLESCENT

                                 BySySchechtman

 

        Someone,George Bernard Shaw probably,said that “youth is a shame towaste on the young”but then it is still common wisdom today that parents approachthe years of teen age development of their progenywith some apprehension---the terrible teens--portendingstormy, dangerous family weather anddiscomfort.Often anunhappy, contentioustime for  bothparent and child. And little more than a hundred years ago,whilethere were the self same actors in the family drama of parent and olderchild,there was no such character around who was an adolescent, unless from a very wealthy family.   Instead we had the almost physical adult but who was denied the status of sensual gratificationand responsibility that is inherent in the more commonly associated more mature level of adult hood.     These pre adult family members,however,were eagerly employedin many aspects ofwork productionin the cityor on the farm.   Child labor laws were generally notyet a factor in impeding their hands from contributing to the family budget.

         But then these many extra younger hands became gradually less needed, especially in the farm fields.  And then the gains in worker productivity in the city and factory   became more evident asthe industrial revolutiongradually became more manifest,firstdrawing more workersfrom the farm field to the  city factory,and then starting to diminishthe overall need for so many hands as worker productivity began to improve due to increased mechanization.   The industrial revolution was in full bloom causing much ultimate goodbut also much temporary dislocation.  And child labor,which had been an abundant and cheap source of laborbecame now a moral debit that had to be discarded. Thus the little red school house on the prairie started to flourish.  First as a somewhat primitivemulti age situation in oneroomaffair and then slowly the multi complex educational mammoth of today.    Thus we had, at the beginning of the  20^th century, the term adolescence created by the psychologist G. Stanley Hall,  to mark   the “definitive  termfor the elongatedhiatus betweenchildhoodand adulthood.”  This somewhat limbo period of deferred sensual gratification and adult responsibility.  

         Did the thirst for  additionalknowledge fuel the role of the schooling expansion,or the explicit need to warehouse these fledgling adults,whose efforts were now less needed in certain kinds of unnecessary labor?    Whatever thefundamental impetus, certainlyschooling becamea part of the mix of activities of increasing numbers of children,young and older, whether impelled by social as well as purely educationalneed. And as some criticsinsist,    set up in the identical mold of the already existing factory model,with the generally melodious school bell sonority instead of the grim factory whistle or blast to start the day.  And soon increasing schooling beyond the initial grades became fashionable.  And parents had to proudly attend not only graduation of their primary school child, but even of “high school”,the secondary rung upward on the educational ladder now deemed not only more fashionable but absolutely necessary.   And now, of course, this trend has gained steam roller momentum,and the  necessary passportto successful adulthood is “higher education”----college of some sort and then even post graduate work , and the prestigious title of“Doctor”, betokening some extra study  and specialization beyond the previouslypremiumlevel of the basic,post   high school college degree.   But inevitably we are tipping theboat toofar offthe desiredeven keelof  moderation.Of getting far too much of what we have been hoping and praying for.   An overloadoftoo many overtrained expensive specialists and a severe diminution  in much needed unskilledor basic skilledworkers—electricans, plumbers, constructionworkers, waiters and restaurant personnel,and all around general “handymen”. And leaving   us   dolefully susceptible to the following somewhat sarcastic retort proper, when the customer,a busy, relativelyprosperous professional, protests the high cost of the electrician’sbillpresented to him for work in the professional’s office.  “Sure,Doc,I used to feel just like that when I was stillpracticingmedicine.”(Or, of course, any other post graduate specialty.)Only about 10 percent of native bornmen now drop out ofhigh school,and the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 56 million new jobs will be created in the next ten years---half of them needing onlya high school education. There is nothing shamefaced about that extra piece of paper called a college degreebutsometimes society pays a large but hidden tax on thismass collective lemming likeapproach prolongingadolescence   against the reality of adult life and shedding the protective chrysalis of adolescence.

        But   nature has provided us with the social dilemma  of the biological evolutionary progress of its teen age human   creaturesbeing too far advanced for the socialand emotionalstandards that are considered acceptably normal. We have this biologicallymature person, male or female,while with not much social or cultural tradition, still at theheight of his or her mental acuity and physical strength and coordination and able tosuccessfullyprocreate, but whose ability to be successfulparents is questionable. In prior generations, withthe shortened life of all people, considered well able to attain the married state and parenthood in the 18 to 21 range.   An acknowledged adult without the further educational hurdles of college and graduate school.Today, however,  we have an intensely consumer oriented society luring him or her into the web of main stream adult society.Despitethe possiblyartificial legalbarrier of being “underage”.

      Truly the tumescent adolescent.   Enticed, lured,and also rejected, repelled.And affluent enough to be able to afford,if given parental backing, many of these consumer wiles.But now graduallybecoming part of a youth and separate peer culture and also impelled to reject parental prototypes drastically, the mantra becoming that if “the person is overthirty don’t talk to them”.   Some separationand individuation of youth from parent is essential, but maturing youthin our modern society to a large extent hasbecome a counter culture,with a feckless, mature and permissiveparental   over groupthat was distressedif not distraughtby this “teen age rebellion”.  Indeed,peer pressure ofadolescentor young adultfriendsinhigh school and college canoften negateor at least significantly modifyone’s heretofore fundamental values and goals if the prior nurture at homewas not positiveenough.

         Andsometimes cause tragic confusion and depression.  Teen age suicideis the third leading cause of death in the 15 to 24 age group.  Many years ago, when concept of adolescence was first becoming manifest,one positive wayto channel all this energynot yet condoned as adultstatuswas the Boy Scout Movement,foundedin this country about l911.  Its credo included the American Scout Oath: “On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to my God and my country to keep myself physically strong, to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, keep myself mentally awake and morally straight.  Andalso“a scoutis trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave ,clean and reverent”    (With an agenda like thatno time was left for depression or morbidness!)    In  rural areas  the 4 H clubs had similar very positive goals, as did the AmericanGirl Scouts , founded shortly after theBoy Scouts.Besides the sterling qualities stressed in their credosextracurricular recreational outdoor activities such as camping, woodcraft and the physical skills demanded of the oudoor life in general were strongly emphasized.By 1916the Boy Scoutsof America weregranted a federal charter in recognition of their 250,000 membership.   Of late, however, the momentum of the Scoutmovement has faltered. This is partly due to the increasing diversity and growth of other teen attractionsand opportunitiessuch as the internetandthe novelty  and challengethatthey present.   Besides this increasing sophistication there is the oppositionto the Scout Credoby agnostics, atheistsand avowed homosexual leaders.  Many influential activist groups,such as the ACLU,havetargeted the Scouts for allegedoppositionto these groups.   And the New Jersey Supreme Court,since overruledby the US Supreme court (5-4),supported the ACLU’s pro gay suitabout homosexual scout leaders.

        And as we go further into current modernity, and away from the relatively innocentinnovations   beyond conventional schoolingat all levels,we have a luxiurant growth of off beat teen age energy in many flavors, including “motorcycle gangs,

rockers, , greasers, beatniks, surfers, mods, hippies,radicals,

punks, and rappers.    An exotic mix but one inevitable in an open democratic societywith less pressure to conform andwhere one’s right to free speech and peaceful dissent is a touchstone ofliberty.    In England for centuries the “playing fields of Eton” where thought to exemplify  that ideal of honestcompetition andjust rewards for valiant effort.  With strongsupport of the Englishtraditional school system instilling formal debates andthe respect ofdiffering opinions.  In this countrywe have the added burden that we are rapidly becoming a polyglotnation,  perhaps unfortunately.  The unifyingforce ofour heretofore national language—English--seems to be dissolving in theincreasingly large tide of immigration.  More and more does basic information have at least  a necessary Spanishtranslation,  and bilingual educationalso a commonnecessity in many Hispanic areas.  The cherished ideal of the “melting pot”---assimilation, from many one,epluribus unum ----seems very much in doubt.  And our public school system  is also having to defend against alternate teaching stylessuch as home schooling,vouchersto choose a school of personal choice,and other alternate modes of transmitting the increasingly large amount of relevant knowledge.   Indeed one seminal, radical workhas been Ivan Illych’s  “Deschooling Society”  in which he in effectargues thatwhen “you areteachingstudents are not learning.”  Advocating more open “classes”in the field, on site events of actualparticipation in the flow of life and work.   In effect trying to deemphasizethe whole corporateeducational   structure in some idealized moreintimate personal way.  Which made for stimulating slogans, sparkling conversation and hopeful speculation, but not much else in practical implementation.  Of coursethe day of the internet and emailand I podsis just dawning,and more personalized contact withstudentsisnow a creative possibility, and the positive fusion of didactic teachingand tangible learning  nowmaybe a concrete reality.

         But the successand fruition of the adolescent experience, its detumescence  intothepositive young adult,shedding resentmentsand frustrations and striving upward,will be the result ofcombinedefforts of parents and peers and schoolingthat has enoughfirmness, but lack of rigidityand respect for individualuniqueness andpersonal space.  This is an immense task.   We haveabout three hundred million in our nation now,most of themfirst or second generation immigrants and many, many of them now adolescents with their unique problems ofadjustment andin avary labile environment.    Thecontinued acculturation and assimilationof the currentyoung people---adolescents and recent immigrants—will test the enduring strength ofour country.   So far the Iraqi and Vietnamese Wars—apparent debacles that they were—have notdimmedthe loyalty of our citizenseven  unto valiantly sacrificingtheir lives again or sustaining serious wounds.    Thattheir lives have been apparently wastedis a senseless crime that our level of civilizationcontinuallyperpetrates,and we have never learned to surmount.And for our nation to continue its leadership in the worldand hopefully once again a beaconofpeace and stability in the worldthe modelmust not be the somewhatnarrow image of the “playing fields of Eton”and its upper class implications,althoughit did encompasssome broader spectrum of   middle and lower class participation.  But for usthe “playing field”must be the far broader spectrum of our mass education systemstarting now withpre schooland going on up throughthe college level---at  least.!    We have much that isfar from perfect,with some imperfectionsand venal happenings,but until now manymillion continue to “vote with their feet”by immigratingwith the promise of more freedom and economic opportunity here.    And  while this trend is never a sure thingwe have still created themost open society in history with the most faith in the commonman.While there is still too much  rhetoric and not enough reality it is still anunparalleled accomplishment---so far.Still thegreatest place for the struggling adolescent as he passes the bar into adulthood to harvest the many socioeconomicand politicalfruits our culture has even now available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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